Staff Reporter

Susan Chala and Pule waga Mabe Every child knows what Santa Claus familiarly known as Father Christmas looks like. White, with a long white beard, wearing a red-and-white suit and sporting a large, round stomach. The Santa Claus at Southgate Mall does wear a red-and-white suit, but otherwise he’s tall, young, thin, beardless and white. […]

Nawaal Deane Peter Gaul is 25 years old and brain damaged. He communicates by moving his eyebrows. He breathes through a pipe connected from his throat and is intravenously fed by a tube from his stomach. Six years ago Gaul was the driver in a car accident that resulted in the death of his best […]

Ntuthuko Maphumulosoccer The Liberian team has come back with a bang recently beating the Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier and beating Cape Verde 3-0 in the preliminary round of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers. Liberia have visited South Africa once before but not to play the home nation. They […]

Graffiti and candles have damaged Oscar Wilde’s memorial but lipstick may ruin it forever, his grandson says Stuart Jeffries Oscar Wilde’s grave in Paris has put up with a lot in its first century the flying angel headstone has been castrated (twice), commemorative candles have scorched the front and multilingual graffiti are regularly scrawled over […]

Chris McKenzie and Justin Arenstein Mpumalanga’s new R630-million legislature is illegal and its construction has destroyed at least three protected plant species. The controversial complex is almost complete, but it has still not been approved by the Nelspruit City Council or the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Meanwhile, forensic investigators attached to the […]

‘Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world.” “A true friend stabs you in the front.” “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” “The only difference between the […]

The South African challenger has had a protracted and unusual build-up to his fight in Sheffield this weekend Gavin Evans Mbulelo Botile is under no illusions: fall short against Paul Ingle on Saturday night and his career is effectively over. Which is why his preparations for this big event in Sheffield have been curious, to […]

Andrew Muchineripi soccer The honeymoon ended this week under the grey skies of Johannesburg for coach Carlos Queiroz as foreign-based players trickled into camp for an African Cup of Nations qualifier with Liberia at FNB stadium on Saturday. There will always be a post in the diplomatic service for the widely travelled native of Mozambique, […]

Debbie Fox South Africa should clean up its act offshore or face unknown damage to the marine environment, says government scientist Lynn Jackson, deputy director of marine and aquatic pollution control in the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Jackson says too little is being done to gauge the effects of sewage and industrial effluent […]

Barry Streekcricket As a cricketer, Robbie Armitage, who represented South Africa in 1983, was known for his fighting qualities, his determination and his style. When he died in Grahamstown last Saturday night at the age of 45 after a long battle with cancer, he again demonstrated those same qualities. He had gone to Grahamstown to […]

THE World Bank is lending Ethiopia up to $800m to help rebuild its shattered economy after two years of bitter border war with Eritrea, Bank officials have said. Between July 2000 and July 2001 the World Bank will have lent the eastern African country between $700 and $800m. World Bank representative to Addis Ababa, Nigel […]

Tara Turkington A rare camelthorn forest in the southern Kalahari is being threatened by the large-scale collection of dead wood under contract, claim outraged experts.? The 2?200ha Khai Appel Nature Reserve near Kathu, in the Northern Cape, is home to one of only two camelthorn forests in Southern Africa, and has been?declared a Natural Heritage […]

When villagers at Civitavecchia witnessed tears of blood falling down the face of a souvenir Madonna, they proclaimed it a miracle. But soon, experts were branding it a cunning hoax and a row ensued Alix Kirsta What strikes people most when they first see the weeping Madonna of Civitavecchia is her size. The white glazed […]

SUDANESE trickled to the polls at the start of a 10-day election that incumbent Islamist President Omar al-Beshir and his party look set to win because of a massive opposition boycott. All Sudan’s main opposition parties, most of which are involved in a civil war with Beshir’s government, were boycotting the vote to protest against […]

The Rose of Soweto is determined to win in Montreal so he can have another bout with Glenn Catley Deon Potgieter Dingaan “the Rose of Soweto” Thobela is in high spirits going into the first defence of his World Boxing Council super-middleweight world title in Canada on Friday night. “I have worked hard to get […]

A misconduct commission looking into magistrates’ behaviour has found alcohol abuse to be a ‘big problem’ Khadija Magardie The country’s magistrates’ courts are experiencing severe bottlenecks in hand-ling and finalising cases a situation unlikely to be helped by lurid tales of tipsiness in the courts. The Magistrates’ Commission this week said that 60% of disciplinary […]

Libby Brooks Body Language Her head is thrown back, exposing her lovely throat. She cups one breast. Her emerald-shaded eyes are closed, but her legs are open, feet arching into opulent gold stilettos. The pose is strikingly erotic. It has power to excite and, it would seem, to offend. The advert for the Yves Saint […]

TOGOLESE Prime Minister Agbeyome Kodjo has called for the international community to provide developing countries with the means necessary to battle international organised crime. “It is a moral duty” to assist developing countries, Kodjo said, calling for “affluent countries to put in place help programs to fight poverty which feeds organised crime.” – AFP

Steven Friedman Worm’s eye view The elections were, for two reasons, a fitting end to the political year. First, they allowed voters to pronounce on the government strategy which has dominated much of 2000. Second, because the electorate’s message seems to have been misunderstood as it has been for much of the year. The substantial […]

Thebe Mabanga In July this year when South Africa lost the right to host the 2006 World Cup to Germany, the Mail & Guardian lamented the development as a “sad reflection on Europe”. In one of its best editorials, the paper lambasted the European mentality, which it noted, was “bereft of generosity and redolent with […]

David Beresford Another Country The first confidence trickster I came across was, I think, one of my brothers. I must have been six or seven years old and was harbouring certain suspicions about Santa Claus. I cannot remember what prompted the doubts; maybe it was a certain falsity of the “ho! ho! ho!” offered up […]

Tara Turkington, Johannesburg | Friday A RARE camelthorn forest in the southern Kalahari is being threatened by the large-scale collection of dead wood under contract, claim outraged experts. The 2200ha Khai Appel Nature Reserve near Kathu, in the Northern Cape, is home to one of only two camelthorn forests in Southern Africa, and has been […]

Barry Streek A fault line tore through the ranks of liberal whites this week as many rallied to sign the “declaration of commitment by white South Africans” and distanced themselves from the Democratic Alliance whose leaders have emphatically rejected the statement. The list of those pledging themselves to the declaration reads like a who’s who […]

John Aizlewood NOT CD OFTHEWEEK A greatest hits by any other name, but with a title only Elvis Presley could share, the 27-track 1 (EMI) delivers what it promises: all The Beatles’ British and American number-one singles, from Love Me Do (one American week on its belated release there in 1964, but still 1’s opening […]

Andy Capostagnorugby The point has been made in The Times of London that this year’s Springbok end-of-season tour lacked a focal point. There was some good rugby played, there was a lot more bad rugby played, but after four Tests and a high-profile festival game, Harry Viljoen’s first go at coaching the Springboks was about […]

OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Friday THE South African government had barely finished congratulating US President-elect George W Bush when it reminded him of the United States’ role in fighting global poverty and war and in promoting development in Africa. Throughout the late nineties, then deputy-president Thabo Mbeki developed a good relationship with his counterpart Al […]

Nawaal Deane The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a United States-based organisation, this week stepped in to shield Rafael Marques, an Angolan journalist, from continued harassment by the Angolan government. In a letter to Angolan President Jos Eduardo dos Santos, the CPJ strongly protested against the government’s continued persecution of Marques and other journalists in […]

The Zimbabwean president’s popularity is at an all-time low and Zanu-PF must decide whether to ditch him Chris McGreal Zimbabwe’s ruling party opened an extraordinary congress this week with the one issue on everyone’s lips officially off the agenda Robert Mugabe’s future. The Zanu-PF party has purged and sidelined critics of Zimbabwe’s beleaguered president ahead […]

The fix is in, Al Gore is out and it is a bad day for American democracy. In the end, the Supreme Court was decisive. The majority’s ruling was transparently political. Questions of timeframe and standards in Florida’s recounts could have been resolved with goodwill and impartiality. Both were lacking. By its action, the antithesis […]

A GABONESE air force plane with three crew members aboard disappeared from radar screens as it was coming into land at Tchibanga, in the southwest Gabon, French and Gabonese officials said. The 30-seater Bandeirante aircraft, which was flying in from the capital Libreville, went missing on Tuesday. Gabonese soldiers backed by French military units were […]

Ebrahim Harvey left field Because the Industrial Revolution, which gave rise to classes and class struggles, began in England and Europe there is no doubt that the historical, ideological and epistemologi-cal foundations of Marxism reside with white European intellectuals, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Black people in the Third […]

Iden Wetherell Thabo Mbeki’s mission to broker a solution to Zimbabwe’s protracted land crisis has ended impaled on the rock of President Robert Mugabe’s monumental ego, it became clear this week. In Harare two weeks ago for talks with Mugabe ahead of a crucial visit by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s envoy Mark Malloch […]